Kindergarten preparedness makes a difference by third grade

May 14, 2013

Ben Hackenwerth

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Children who enter kindergarten ready to learn are more likely to be on track by the critical third-grade year.

Springfield Associate Superintendent Ben Hackenwerth said children who start off without the social, emotional and basic academic skills to be successful are already behind many of their peers.

They are then faced with making up significant ground in the primary years so they can make the transition — from learning to read to using reading to learn — by the end of third grade.

“There is no doubt that a student that ... comes to kindergarten ready to learn is going to probably be a year ahead of someone who comes in and is not ready for school, socially or academically,” he said.

Hackenwerth said it can take kindergarten teachers an entire semester to acclimate a child to the expectations and the routines of kindergarten — time that could be spent in other ways.

“So we’ve already lost a semester that we could have been working with a student in those formative years. You can’t hardly ever get it back. That’s the challenge,” he said.

“That window we have to work with is narrow, and the loss of even a semester takes years of catching up.”

One out of every five Springfield children is “not prepared” when entering kindergarten, according to the 2010 study by the Mayor’s Commission for Children.

Springfield Superintendent Norm Ridder said expectations for children, from kindergarten through grade 12, are on the rise. They have been raised by the demands of global economy and higher state and federal accountability measures.

He said the effort to better prepare students for college and careers has spurred an increase in what they need to know and be able to do in every grade.

“The rigor has really moved down into the system as far as expectations and knowledge level and being able to not only communicate and relate but also have a pretty good knowledge base and be able to reason much earlier in life,” he said. “... To be able to be prepared for a career as well as college readiness, you’re going to need to be able to read and write at a much earlier age.”

Denise Bredfeldt, executive director of the Mayor’s Commission for Children, said children deserve to have the early childhood experiences — at home or in public, private or faith-based preschool programs — that will set them up for success in school.